William Cocke

William Cocke (1748-22 August 1828) was a US Senator from Tennessee from 2 August 1796 to 26 September 1797, preceding Andrew Jackson, and from 4 March 1799 to 3 March 1805, succeeding Joseph Anderson and preceding Daniel Smith. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party.

Biography
William Cocke was born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1748, and he became a lawyer. However, he spent more time on the frontier than he did in the office, and he took part in Daniel Boone's expeditions to Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. He served as a militia colonel during the American Revolutionary War, and he took part in the writing of the state constitution in 1796. That same year, the legislature of Tennessee elected him to serve in the US Senate, but this occurred before Tennessee acquired statehood, and Andrew Jackson was formally elected in 1797, succeeding Cocke in the Senate. He then served in the Senate from 1799 to 1805, and later as a federal judge. In 1813, he served in the Mississippi state legislature, and he died in Columbus, Mississippi in 1828.